Reading This and That

I was looking for some good superhero fiction and the two-part series "Rise of Renegade X" and "Trials of Renegade X" sounded good and got some good reviews.

I liked Rise quite well.  There were some disbelief stretching - if everyone has a perfect-information-mark that indicates whether they are a superhero or super villain, why wouldn't we just arrest every super villain?  But the story itself was still very good and the characters were done very well.  There was just enough teenage angst but not too much to overpower the story.  And the realization by Renegade X of just who he is or could be was well done.  I give this book 4 stars.

Trials, on the other hand, was hard to get through.  I want to cheer for my heroes (which is why I never really liked Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever) and this book made it hard to do so.  WAY too much teenage angst and the sudden change of Renegade and his girlfriend to be so promiscuous was also over the top.  This book seemed to be a step back in trying to appeal to young adults but I think it went too far.  If only Renegade told one person one thing at any step of the way, all of the story problems might have disappear (which is also my complaint about the Harry Potter books!).  Three stars for this one and I am leery of any sequels - I'd have to read reviews before jumping in sight unseen.